Always the Bridesmaid
by SumDumMuffin
Summary: Ruby meets someone special at her sister's wedding.


"Well you know, Rubaby," Yang said. She leaned her only arm around her sister's shoulder, and her chin on her head, "A lot of couples first meet up at weddings."

Ruby scrunched her mouth to the side and looked over the wedding preparation checklist. They were doing the whole thing with volunteers from friends and family, because apparently Yang and Neo wanted to do things the hard way. "Really now," Ruby said, idly.

They were in a large dinner hall, right in front of a wooden stage at the end. It was still mid-afternoon on a summer day so the light shining in was still a daytime color.

Ruby had her signature red hoodie over a more traditional formal blouse and skirt. She originally intended to take off her hoodie once the dinner started, but she decided she liked the look. Besides, it was comfortable.

"Yeah! Part of its because weddings are an explicitly romantic event where you need to talk to people, but mostly it's a microsm of the fact that most people end up meeting their spouses via mutual friends, because that way you can both vet each other, and you have some semblance of something in common."

"That's interesting," Ruby said. She sent a text off to the catering services and started counting the flower deliveries. She made a mental note to text their parents if they didn't return in ten minutes and to double-check that Nora was baking agreed upon menu.

"So maaybeee~," Yang said. Ruby didn't even have to be able to see to know that Yang was smiling harder, "You'll find the woman of your dreams before the end of the weekend~"

And Yang's Big Day wasn't until tomorrow, so Ruby figured she had the rest of the night to tease her sister.

"Or maybe," Ruby turned her head and stuck her tongue out, so that the person currently leaning on her could see, "your wedding won't even go off _at all_ if you don't stop annoying me."

"Aww, c'mon, Rubaby~" Yang said. She pulled out her phone, "I helped, a little. I got the seating arrangements done. I put you next to all the other women without plus-ones so you can try chatting some of them up while Neo and I get our matrimony on."

Ruby sighed. "Well, that's actually a really big job. So, thanks. Now get off me."

* * *

And after getting a few more tasks for her checklist, Ruby decided to see where Yang had seated her-

To find that there were only two seats at the table. Ruby sighed.

It was even odds that Yang wouldn't expect Ruby to notice, or that she implied that it wasn't an obvious set-up in order to get Ruby to agree to sit there and talk to some random lady Yang was trying to throw her at.

Damn, it might even possibly one of Yang's exes. Ruby was pretty sure only Weiss was invited, and she had hooked up with one of Ruby's bookclub friends, but Yang had been a - what's a positive way to say, impetuously willing to ask any and all girls out all the time no matter what? - back before she had fallen into a whirlwind romance with a woman who had a good chance of having stolen more than just her sister's heart, and being comparable to an actual whirlwind during some portions of their courtship.

Honestly, the wedding preparations were going fine. They had like four other family members, plus some people Neo claimed were like family but better, all doing tasks. All doing tasks right now, which meant if anything went wrong Ruby'd have to deal with it, but nothing was keeping Ruby from resting her legs in for the moment...

* * *

"Ah, hello," Said a woman, "I think I'm supposed to be sitting here? I know I'm a few hours early..."

Ruby turned her head, to see that there was a remarkably attractive older woman, with iridescent eyes and a pair of purple cat-eye glasses.

and an intricately woven braid of platinum blonde hair along her right shoulder.

"Oh!" Ruby found herself standing up. She held out her hand. "Hello. I'm Ruby."

"You wouldn't happen to be Summer's daughter, would you?" said the woman.

"oh! Yes." Ruby shook the hand. "Ruby Rose. And what maytell might your name be?"

Internally, Ruby face-palmed for saying something so weird as 'maytell'.

"I'm Glynda Goodwitch. I was a friend of Summer's," the woman said. She smiled and shook Ruby's hand.

"Oh! Yeah, she's- " Ruby glanced around, "Well, hopefully finishing up that last errand with our other parents...

Ruby idly pulled out her phone to check her messages.

"Wait," Ruby said, "You wouldn't happen to be professor Goodwitch, would you?"

Glynda smiled. "Ah, so you remember me."

"Ah-" Ruby sunk into her hoodie and blushed.

Glynda chuckled. "So you _definitely_ remember me."

"T-to be fair," Ruby said. She closed her eyes and cleared her throat and put her hand on her chest, "It was my mom that wanted me to do that dance for all her guests."

"So I take it I won't get to see a repeat performance this weekend?"

Ruby puffed out her cheek. "No." And then, to change the subject, "But there is a dance, right after the rehearsal dinner, and also tomorrow during the reception."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Glynda said. She pulled out an embossed piece of white paper, "I also noticed that during the rehearsal dinner there's also 'martial arts tournament registration'

Ruby sighed. "Yeah..."

"And that, when you look at tomorrow's scheduled activities," Glynda turned paper over, "Overlapping the reception there's the aforementioned martial arts tournament.

Ruby nodded. She refreshed her expression. "Yeah. It's a nod to how Yang and Neo first met."

Glynda looked like she was suppressing a chuckle. "What, did they meet at a fight club or something?"

Ruby clicked her mouth as she nodded. "Yeah. Or something."

Glynda leaned back in her chair. "I vaguely remember Yang from back then, too. She had attached a nerf gun to her- her arm, and got into a fight with Ozpin."

"Yeah," Ruby said. She briefly got lost in nostalgia. "So are you still in contact with my mom?"

"Less so recently, less so than I'd like," Glynda said. She waved the air idly with her right hand.

"That's too bad," Ruby said, "But hey, this is an opportunity to reconnect."

"It is," Glynda said. She nodded.

Ruby coughed. She had randomly seemed to forget how to hold a conversation.

"So what are you up to these days?" Glynda said.

"About 158 cm," Ruby said.

Glynda chuckled. "Nice. Being 188 and often in heels, I am obligated to give you encouragement that you might get taller still."

Ruby puffed out her cheek. "Wow, thanks."

Glynda laughed a bit more openly, at that. Ruby smiled, unbidden.

"But to more seriously answer your question," Ruby said, "I'm finishing up grad school. Hopefully I'll be able to find employment afterwards, and then I guess," she shrugged and waved her hands around, idly, "I'll get around to doing all those typical hallmarks of adulthood, like getting a car, getting married, and learning to pay taxes."

"I'm sure you'll have time," Glynda said. She brought her hand to her chest, "I still have friends my age who are finally getting married," she snorted two short forlorn laughs, "So I guess there's hope for me as well..."

Ruby nodded to try to be polite, but she didn't know if agreeing verbally would be rude, so she didn't.

"Anyway," Glynda said, "What are you studying?"

"Oh, agricultural engineering, actually," Ruby said. "Or more exactly, mechanical engineering, but with a focus on modern farming machinery and robotics."

"Just like Qrow," Glynda said.

"Yeah, he was a big inspiration to me, growing up," Ruby said. She grinned, impetuously, "The difference is that I'm going to surpass him in credentials, at the very least, heheheh."

Glynda brought her hand to her chest. "I'm actually a physics professor, you know."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, I remember. Hows that going?"

There was a crash, from one of the adjoining rooms. Ruby frowned for a moment.

"Can't really complain," Glynda said, "Though I worry I'm getting bored of it."

"It's possible to get bored of physics?" Ruby joked.

"Well, teaching it, " Glynda said. "I have been doing a lot of the same things for a long time." She rubbed the back of her head. "I, ah, was actually pretty excited for this wedding-"

There was another, louder crash, in the adjoining room to the big hall. Ruby tried to ignore it.

"Well, that's good to hear," Ruby said. "Personally, I'm excited as her sister, but less so as her primary wedding planner-"

There was a third crash, with several smaller crashes after it, with what sounded like an electrical short somewhere in the middle there, all from the same storage room off to the side of the meeting room.

Ruby let out all of her exasperation in a long sigh. "I'm so sorry," she said to Glynda, as she stood up in her chair, "Can you excuse me for a moment?"

* * *

Ruby barged into the back room where the person who owned the venue stored some of their more common props, which "Yang, what are you-"

Yang was there, in her wedding dress, but also a blindfold. She was waving her arm around in front of her, palm out, as she slowly waddled around the the storage.

Ruby sighed. "I can guess what you're doing," She said. She put her fists on her hips. "But I want you to tell me what happened, so you can hear aloud how stupid you are."

Yang seemed unfazed. "Well, I wanted to try out the wedding dress, to see how well I can jump around in it," Yang said, to the wall to the side of Ruby, since she was wearing a blindfold. "You know, for the martial arts tournament."

"If you wanted a wedding dress you could fight in you should have told the tailor six months ago-"

"Anyway~" Yang pontificated, to a direction on the _other_ side of Ruby, this time, "Neo thought that was a good idea! And she also wanted to try it out-"

Ruby touched her forehead and sighed. "And let me guess-"

Yang interrupted her. "But since you're not allowed to see the bride in her wedding gown before the big day, and we're both the bride-"

There was a crash, in the hallway.

"-Neo _also_ put on a blindfold."

Ruby exhaled all the air in her lungs over four seconds.

"NEO~" Yang called out. She jabbed her arm out in front of her as she shambled towards the exit, "Neo, cutie- follow the sound of my voice-"

Ruby rubbed her brow. "I could just guide her to you-"

Neo stumbled in from the hallway, arms out, towards Yang.

Yang turned her head side to side, as if she was trying to scan her surroundings. "I'll talk in a loud voice, so you can be sure to hear me-"

Ruby's expression flattened. "Do you even have a _non_-loud setting to your voice?"

Yang was unfazed. "I will be your verbal lighthouse, sweetums-"

"Lighthouses actually exist so that ships can _avoid_ them-"

And finally bumped into each other. They spent a couple moments doing what Ruby could only guess was a comedy routine, of Yang feeling around Neo's face while Neo patted Yang's torso, up to her breasts, upon which she seemed satisfied that she had, indeed, bumped into her fiance.

"Neo!" Yang said.

Neo signed something that Ruby figured from context was a pet name for Yang.

They smooched.

They smooched again.

Yang pressed her palm against Neo's cheek as the shorter girl jumped up and kicked her left leg back and wrapped her arm's around her fiance's shoulders and they smushed their mouths against each other-

"Yang-" Ruby said.

"Just one more-" Yang said, when she briefly came up for air.

They smooched another two or three times, depending on how much lip contact counted as a 'smooch' rather than, just, awkwardly smushing parts of your face against each other.

"Yang!" Ruby said.

Neo pressed her right hand into Yang's, so that she could sign in her hand via contact.

"Aw, your wedding dress feels lovely too, cutie~" Yang said.

"YANG!" Ruby said. She rubbed her temple. "And, also, Neo, because you're enabling her-"

Neo signed something into Yang's palm. "Well, that's what couples do, Ruby," Yang said. She smirked. "They encourage each other."

"Well maybe you two can encourage each other to do something that _won't_ eventually end up forfeiting our deposit, or tearing your wedding dresses-"

"Nah, the battle-damaged wedding look is in these days," Yang said.

Ruby blinked. "No it's not."

Neo signed something into Yang's palm. "Well not with _that_ attitude."

Ruby sighed. "Look, can you two please just, get changed?" Ruby bit her lip to keep from adding something unflattering.

Yang paused. Neo did as well. They turned to face each other, even though they were both blindfolded (But they were also basically pressed up against each other so maybe some kind of proprioception kicked in?)

Neo sighed something into Yang's palm. Yang leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Okay, Rubaby," Yang said, "We're sorry to disrupt the preparations like this. Is there something bothering you?"

"No- just," Ruby scrunched her mouth to the side, "I was just, hoping to be able to relax for a length of time today."

Yang paused again, Neo did as well.

Yang then grinned, insufferably, at the space a half-meter to the left of Ruby's head. "Ooooh, did you hit it off with Professor Goodwitch?"

"I-" Ruby was actually glad that Yang and Neo were blindfolded, because she felt a blush, "Is that relevant?"

"In that case," Yang said. She turned back to her fiance. "Neo, I will gladly bear the burden of disrobing, so you can return to the world of the sighted."

Ruby facepalmed.

Yang started trying to undress. "It is my burden to bear."

Neo smiled and pantomimed something that looked like 'my hero'. Ruby wondered if that was the actual sign language for that sentiment, but since Yang couldn't see it may have just been reflexive.

Yang got stuck immediately. "Ah, the struggle begins."

"Actually Yang, since Roman's going to be gone for the next hour, you're going to be Neo's only interpreter for a while," Ruby said.

"I see," Yang said. She stopped trying to worm out of her wedding dress, but it was already sloppily disheveled. "In that case, Neo, this will be your burden to bear."

Neo started undressing herself, with Yang's help.

"Easy solution;" Ruby said, "Return to separate rooms, take off the blindfolds, and then change out of your wedding dresses. Preferably in time for the rehearsal dinner."

"Well sure, if you wanna do things the easy way," Yang said.

Ruby sighed, again, and prepared to do things the hard way.


End file.
